This week, our writers bring you news from Argentina, Sweden, and Iran. In Argentina, book fairs have moved events online and well-known trans writer Camila Sosa Villada has spoken about the benefits of trans literature; in Sweden, newspapers have been publishing full-length novels as a daily series for Summer; and in Iran, a new book of letters by Abbas Kiarostami has faced publication rights controversy. Read on to find out more!
Allison Braden, Co-Editor-at-Large, reporting from Argentina
This year, the 46th annual Buenos Aires Book Fair was postponed indefinitely. The spring gathering, predictably, had to adapt to limitations imposed by coronavirus, but the change of plans was nevertheless a huge loss to the booksellers and industry professionals who rely on the blockbuster event, which attracts upwards of 10,000 visitors over the course of the fair. However, Fundación El Libro, the organization that puts on the fair, opted to go a different route for its children’s book fair. That programming will be held virtually, beginning this coming Monday, July 20, and continuing through the end of the month. Organizers promise hundreds of digital activity opportunities for children and young adults, which may provide welcome relief to parents.
Even with the book fair on hold, other efforts to promote Argentine literature around the world continue. Programa Sur, one of the most robust programs of its kind in the Spanish-speaking world, was developed in 2016 to offer grants to incentivize small and medium publishers abroad to release Argentine books in translation. Since its inception, the program site boasts that “over 800 foreign publishers from 46 countries have applied for support in the translation of 1,060 works by more than 380 Argentine authors into 40 languages.” The program is accepting applications through September.
Those stuck at home in Argentina and abroad, looking to keep their finger on the pulse of literary news and views, may turn to news organization RED/ACCIÓN’s weekly newsletter, Sie7e Párrafos (“seven paragraphs”). The Tuesday newsletter features readings and commentary on literature and nonfiction books, as well as occasional updates on the publishing industry. One recent issue featured a short interview with trans literary star Camila Sosa Villada. Interviewer Javier Sinay asked what the opportunities are for trans literature and what trans literature can contribute to the world. She answers, in my translation, “What happens when writing runs counter to the established canon? A kind of rupture in the peace promised by the rules of good writing . . . Now, you have the opportunity to read something unexpected, about unknown worlds and knowledge you never imagined.” Her answer underscores why the postponed book fair is such a loss and why Programa Sur remains so important.
Eva Wissting, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Sweden
July is a time for vacation in Sweden and this is when most employees take advantage of their statutory five weeks off. This year, most people are opting for staycations, and, like any summer, reading is a popular pastime, particularly crime fiction and true crime. A yearly summer tradition with Sweden’s two largest newspapers is to run a full length novel as a daily series, and this year is no exception. Dagens Nyheter runs Dockorna (The Dolls) by Katarina Wennstam, a former crime reporter who has turned to fiction writing. Her story is forthcoming in book format in August. The other major newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet, has also chosen to run a story about a murder, though not a fictitious one. Historian, author, and former Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy Peter Englund’s nonfiction account of the 1965 murder of Kickan Granell in a Stockholm suburb, Söndagsvägen (Sunday Road), was published in June this year but is now also available in the newspaper throughout the summer.
Another popular summer pastime among many Swedes is to tune in to Radio Sweden’s daily Sommarprat (Summer Talk), which are ninety minute long broadcasts with different hosts each day. Typically, each season includes hosts of various backgrounds and careers, like actors, politicians, artists, scientists, athletes, entrepreneurs, and, of course, authors. This season was opened by activist and writer Greta Thunberg, who also made a version of her broadcast in English. Other writers to host Sommarprat this summer are journalist and writer Patrik Svensson (The Book of Eels), crime fiction writer Sofi Sarenbrant (Killer Deal), literature scholar Martin Hägglund (This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom), and Betlehem Isaak. Isak’s Mitt liv utan dig (My Life Without You) from earlier this year deals with her experiences of growing up in Sweden without her father who, according to Amnesty International, is a prisoner of conscience. Isaak is the daughter of Swedish-Eritrean journalist, writer, and playwright Dawit Isaak, recipient of the 2017 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. Isaak has been imprisoned in Eritrea since 2001 without a trial.
Poupeh Missaghi, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Iran
A new book consisting of some personal letters and notes by Abbas Kiarostami, the late world-famous Iranian director, has been published by the art publishing house Nazar in Tehran. Entitled Man Khane-am [Me, My House], the book includes parts of letters by Kiarostami to his wife of the time in the spring and summer of 1977, parts of one letter to a therapist/family consultant as the two of them were trying to figure out their relationship, and the notes he and his two sons left on the house fridge for one another years later after the separation.
The book, however, has faced some controversy since its publication because of disagreements between the heirs. The letters were provided to the publisher by Bahman Kiarostami, the younger son based in Iran, but then Ahmad Kiarostami, the older son based in the US, renounced the publication on his Instagram page on the grounds of rights and privacy issues, announcing a legal course of action.
In other news, some rumors have been circulating in the Iranian literary world about the publication permit (from the Iranian Ministry of Guidance and Islamic Culture) for the Persian original of No Friend but the Mountains by Kurdish Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani, being revoked. The original was published by Cheshmeh Publishing House only a few months ago, after its English translation release, but it is already in its fourteenth edition. The publisher has rejected all rumors, and the book seems to be still available in market. However, some worry that its case could be similar to Yuval Noah Harari’s book where, following rumors, the book’s permit was revoked and it got collected from bookstores.
No Friend but the Mountains is Boochani’s account of his years at the Manus Island refugee detention center. It was translated from the Persian by Omid Tofighian (published by Picador in 2019) and won the Victorian Premier’s Prize for Literature and the Victorian Premier’s Prize for Nonfiction in January 2019.
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